The book begins with Kira, a hot little harlot who might have been working at a strip joint (if they weren't so damn bourgeois! I really don't know that there is much I can say about this novel that hasn't already been said. She more than any other character is aware of the injustice of the collectivist state, but her focus remains solemnly on life, for as long as she still has breath in her body. The state can destroy Kira physically, but not spiritually. One passage in the book made me laugh in appreciation for how true it rang in my life. Ayn Rand's first published novel, a timeless story that explores the struggles of the individual against the state in Soviet Russia. . We the Living is the first novel published by the American novelist Ayn Rand. The country. To be alive is to be passionately devoted to one’s own life and happiness. And who — in this damned universe — who can tell me why I should live for anything but for that which I want? We the living This edition was published in 1959 by New American Library in New York]. Fountainhead was the first book from Ayn Rand that I read. Likewise she is doomed to live and die in a dismally solitary existence made even more lonesome by the presence of two men. It is set in Soviet Russia, right after the revolution, and describes in detail the horror that the people experienced under this regime. As a child, Syerov is not a good person; his method of filling that void is to see himself as better than other people. Welcome back. You can tell Rand had a real fondness for "old Russia" by the sensitive way she paints her portrait of a city woven into the lives of her characters. As a young, idealistic writer, Rand tackled with gusto multiple genres in one book (a teaser for things to come, e.g. Read Animal Farm for a fictional allegorical account of the Russian Revolution or non-fiction books. Then you stare and wonder what it’s doing to us. It is the early 1920s and Kira's family is gradually learning to cope with Russia's sweeping social and ideological changes in the wake of the Revolution. But some claim that such evils are perversions of a noble ideal that would be practical if only such “excesses” could be avoided. I cannot explain other than it was so beautifully horrific. You came and you forbade life to the living. We the Living Photos View All Photos (4) Movie Info. But I love you so much that I’m trying to hold on to it, to that which you think I am, which I know I was, even though I can’t hold on much longer. When the friend answers no, she says that was the right answer, because if you believe in God then you don't believe in life. I'm a fan of Ayn Rand's and it's fair to say that I'd already decided that I'd rate this highly even before I read it. 43 quotes from We the Living: ‘Well, I always know what I want. . Kira the beautiful young woman, Leo the dark handsome lover and Andrei the Communist disciple and lover of Kira. You’ve driven us all into an iron cellar and you’ve closed all doors, and you’ve locked us airtight, airtight till the blood vessels of our spirits burst! The millions. As for why she didn't just pick one, it seems she had some polyamorous tendencies, as Rand herself did in real life. Ayn Rand is/was an interesting, intelligent woman. We the living tells the story of Kira, a shining light that refuses to be put out by the suffocating invasions of every aspects of one's life perpetrated by communism. This book disturbs me and I don't quite know how to respond to it. My soul has never been so pained by a novel. Avoid this bile like the hateful puke it is. The setting is Soviet Russia, early 1920s. First published in 1936, it is a story of life in post-revolutionary Russia. We are a peer-based support group for those that have lost loved ones to suicide that meets monthly in Fort Wayne. But you’ve tried to tell us what we should want. An honest idealist, Andrei cannot close his eyes to the evidence that communism isn’t raising people up — it’s holding them down and crushing their lives, bringing only suffering to the woman he loves. Kira, born at the revolutionary dawn of the Soviet Union, is continually alone. Once these two men are destroyed — Andrei by his disillusionment with communism, and Leo by his inability to go on fighting — Kira tries to flee, but will she find it possible to defy the state’s power? I cannot explain other than it was so beautifully horrific. I didn't think anything can surpass it. It is set in Soviet Russia, right after the revolution, and describes in detail the horror that the people experienced under this regime. It is a picture of what dictatorship-of … . Anything on this God-damn earth! 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